I was exploring some Candy Chang projects, thanks to For a Life Inspired, and came across this dazzling community art installation. She took an abandoned house in New Orleans and turned one side into a chalkboard where the community can write what they want to do before they die, and now is featured in many cities worldwide. The one in New Orleans even got a “Certificate of Appropriateness” (and must be posted at all times).

Before I Die is an interactive public art project that invites people to share their hopes and dreams in public space. Painted with chalkboard paint and stenciled with the sentence “Before I die I want to _______”, the wall becomes an enlightening way to get to know your neighbors and discover what matters most to the people around you. It creates a public space for contemplation and reminds us why we want to be alive in the world today. It’s a question that changed Candy after she lost someone she loved very much, and she believes the design of our public spaces can better reflect what matters to us as a community and as individuals. This was the basis for her graduate thesis. Help energize your own community and make a wall with the Before I Die toolkit! Some of the writings on the wall stood out to me…

Before I die I want to…be okay with not understanding, be completely myself, hike the appalachian trail, own a monkey, dance fast, hug a sloth, understand why I’m here, truly live, among many more.

It would be interesting to see what matters the most to an entire neighborhood, and I personally would like to revisit my own bucket list. Some things to include would be designing my own house, working to live not living to work, picking up a saxophone and learning some Kenny G, sending smiles or compliments to someone new everyday, picking up one of my thirty recently purchases books, unplug in the wilderness once a month, and trying to make a difference. Wonder what this list will look like in a few years or so…

What would be on your bucket list? What do you want to do before you die?

Crazy you blogged on this.. I wrote an article on this in NOLA (headed back there in a few weeks).Was saddened to hear this home is no longer used for this project :-(..but a co-worker is working on this happening in her home country of Columbia..
awesome idea!